Middle East | The Daily Star

  • Users now can only forward message to 5

    Facebook Inc's WhatsApp is limiting worldwide the number of times a user can forward a message to five, starting on Monday, as the

  • Physical Abuse in Saudi Arabia

    Back home, traumatised

    Halima Akhter was so traumatised and physically weak that she was struggling to walk after landing at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Sunday night. Neither was there any relative to welcome her at the airport.

  • SYRIA WAR: Arab states call for return of refugees

    Arab states at an economic summit in Lebanon on Sunday urged world powers to step up efforts to enable refugees, particularly Syrians, to return home and to ease the burden on host countries.

  • Taliban-US Meet held in Qatar

    The Taliban said it met with US officials in Qatar yesterday, in the latest round of talks between the insurgents and Washington aimed at bringing an end to the 17-year war.

  • US-Saudi can't move on until crown prince 'dealt with'

    Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham yesterday said the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia cannot move forward until Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is "dealt with", without being more specific.

  • Syrian Kurds reject Turkish 'security zone'

    Syria's Kurds yesterday rejected a US proposal for a "security zone" under Turkish control along the Syrian side of the two countries'

  • IS attack kills US forces in north Syria

    A suicide attack killed US servicemen in northern Syria yesterday, causing the United States to suffer its worst combat losses in the war-torn country since 2014 as it prepares to withdraw.

  • Turkey to set up Syria 'security zone'

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday said that Ankara would set up a "security zone" in northern Syria suggested by US President Donald Trump.

  • WFP cuts aid for Palestinians

    The World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended or reduced aid for some of its Palestinian beneficiaries in the occupied West Bank and

  • 4 killed, 44 injured in Kabul blast

    A car bomb exploded near a heavily fortified foreign compound in Kabul yesterday, killing at least four people and wounding 44,

  • Saudis committed to accountability

    US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday that Saudi leaders assured him everyone responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal

  • Crisis gone on too long

    US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday said that a rift between Qatar and its Arab Gulf neighbours had gone on for too long.

  • Turkey sends reinforcements to Idlib border

    Turkey loaded tanks and armoured vehicles onto trucks yesterday and dispatched the convoy to the Turkish province of Hatay on the

  • Israel hits Damascus airport warehouse

    The Syrian state news agency said Israeli warplanes fired a number of missiles toward the Damascus area on Friday, triggering Syrian air

  • Syria withdrawal has started

    The US-led coalition in Syria has begun withdrawing its troops, a spokesman said yesterday, less than a month after US President Donald Trump made his shock announcement.

  • Pompeo blames Obama

    US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday accused Barack Obama of sowing chaos by abandoning the Middle East to Islamist militants and Iranian influence in a blistering critique of the former president's policies even as Pompeo's boss, President Donald Trump, moves to pull American troops out of Syria.

  • Some US officials 'first-class idiots'

    Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday dubbed some US officials "first-class idiots" as he ridiculed them for predicting

  • Saudi teen a legitimate refugee: UN

    The UN has said an 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family is a legitimate refugee and has asked Australia to resettle her,

  • 'Bolton made serious mistake'

    President Tayyip Erdogan yesterday rebuked Washington's national security adviser for demanding that Turkey does not harm Kurdish fighters in Syria, accusing him of complicating US President Donald Trump's plan to withdraw US troops.

  • Strong quake hits off Indonesia

    A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian coast early yesterday, sending residents running out of their homes, but

  • 21 cops, pro-govt militias killed

    Taliban insurgents have stormed security posts in west Afghanistan, killing 21 police and pro-government militia members, officials

  • Taliban snub Saudi, seek venue change

    The Taliban will not attend planned peace talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia this month, and want to shift the venue to Qatar,

  • 30 killed; 7 hurt

    At least 30 people were killed when a gold mine collapsed in northeastern Afghanistan yesterday, officials said, in the latest tragedy to

  • Maduro will be usurper president

    The newly elected chief of Venezuela's opposition-run Congress on Saturday said President Nicolas Maduro will be "usurping the

  • Car bomb injures six in Pakistan's Peshawar

    A car bomb injured six people in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar yesterday, police said, with the blast ripping through multiple

  • Iran to deploy warships to Atlantic: media

    Iran is to deploy its newest warship to the Atlantic Ocean on a five-month mission -- the navy's longest in a decade, the conservative

  • Syria rebel-jihadist clashes kill dozens

    Clashes between jihadists and rebels raged yesterday inside Syria's last major opposition bastion for a third day, a monitor said, as the death toll mounted to more than 70 fighters.

  • Khashoggi murder trial opens in Saudi Arabia

    Saudi Arabia's attorney general sought the death penalty for five of 11 defendants charged with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as their high-profile trial opened in Riyadh yesterday.

  • Men transporting 'remains' in bags

    A Turkish television station has broadcast CCTV footage showing men carrying cases and bags which it says contained slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's body parts.

  • Yemen rebels begin Hodeida withdrawal

    Yemeni rebels have begun to withdraw from the port of Hodeida, the country's key aid lifeline, under an agreement reached in Sweden earlier this month, a UN official said yesterday.

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